kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. Because my writer's mind has decided to torture me and keep me in the realm of vampires (oh, joy), we're going to keep the theme going with...Vampire Knight.

You guys are lucky I still have my sanity after Diabolik Lovers. I could barely make it through the first season, let alone start the second. And if the rumors of making a third season are true, then I pray for EVERYONE'S sanity.

A bit of background.

Vampire Knight started out as a manga series by Matsuri Hino. You might recognize her from...actually, that's all you'll recognize her from. Vampire Knight is the manga that she's known for. She's done other work, but none of it is well-known. Kind of sucks for her, don't you think?

Anyway, aside from being known from only one manga, this manga was so popular that an anime adaptation was in the works thanks to Studio Deen, who produced some pretty popular anime, such as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Rurouni Kenshin. This anime had two seasons: Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight: Guilty. I'll get to which season was better later and why, but for now, let's talk about the plot of the first season.

The story is set at Cross Academy, a fictional school split up into two divisions: the Day Class and the Night Class. The twist: the Day Class consists entirely of humans, and the Night Class consists entirely of vampires.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "How is this possible?" Well, the headmaster, Kaien Cross, believes that humans and vampires can coexist without vampires feeding on humans. However, the Day Class doesn't know the secret of the Night Class, so the headmaster assigned two "guardians" to keep the secret at Cross Academy.

Our first "guardian" is Yuki Cross, Headmaster Cross's adopted daughter, and the overall protagonist of the anime. Yuki has no memories of her past. In fact, her earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter when she was attacked by a rogue vampire and then saved by Kaname Kuran (more on him later). She later became Headmaster Cross's adopted daughter and became friends with Kaname and eventually developed feelings for him.

Our second "guardian" is Zero Kiryuu, the lone survivor of a vampire attack that killed his entire family. Zero was taken in by Headmaster Cross after being bitten by a pureblood (more on that later) vampire, Shizuka Hio, who also killed his family. Due to the attack, Zero hated vampires and did not trust them. He believed they were all just blood-sucking monsters and did not share the belief that Headmaster Cross and Yuki shared of vampires and humans being able to coexist. He is a childhood friend/brother of Yuki's and it has been shown that he has feelings for her and often gets jealous when Kaname is around.

The first season basically shows the struggles that take place between vampires and humans coexisting, along with the struggle of keeping the Night Class's secret from the Day Class. We also learn a little bit more about vampires and the different "levels," and we get a lot of character development on Zero Kiryuu. It's kind of like a "day in the life of..." season, with a few twists and turns scattered throughout.

The second season shows Yuki trying to discover more about her past and why it was hidden from her. We get a lot of character development on Yuki's end, and learn something really shocking about her towards the end of the season. I'm doing my best to keep this review spoiler-free, but I will explain a few things.

Let's start with the different "levels" of vampires. There are five "levels" of vampires, which vary according to the purity of their blood.

The highest level, or level A, is the pureblood vampires, and there aren't many of them. They're the strongest and most powerful vampires out there, and their blood is known to have many different properties, so it is sought after by weaker vampires.

They have no human blood in their family line, so to reproduce, they often intermarry to reproduce. For those of you who don't know what that means, it means that, for example, a brother will marry his sister so that they can keep the pureblood line pure, without a single trace of human blood. Disgusting, right? What sick mind would come up with this?

Additionally, a human bitten by a pureblood vampire will become a vampire.

Level B is the aristocrat vampires. They're the elite vampires with special abilities beyond normal vampires. They are also very powerful vampires, but are not as powerful as the purebloods, due to the small traces of human blood in their family lines. They also have super strength and speed.

Level C is just the commonplace vampires. They're not really that special and don't really make an appearance in the anime, so we're going to skip over them.

Levels D and E are the lowest levels. They are ex-humans who were bitten by pureblood vampires. While Level D vampires can be tamed by a vampire hunter, Level E stands for Level End, meaning that the end of that vampire's life is near and will be ended by the Hunter's Association.

We talked about Zero and Yuki already, so let's talk about Kaname. Kaname Kuran is a pureblood vampire, and as such, is in charge of the Night Class. He's the one who saved Yuki from the rogue vampire when she was young. He, too, has romantic feelings for Yuki.

So, rating: um...wow, this is tough. Let's just rate by season.

Vampire Knight: 8/10
Vampire Knight: Guilty: 5/10

Why (overall): This anime is actually pretty good, and the first season sets the second season up pretty well. The animation is great, as is the character development. There's comedy throughout thanks to Headmaster Cross, and the romance is actually somewhat believable. Keyword being somewhat. Why? Well, let's get back to what I said about pureblood vampires. It almost feels like their forcing the message of incest being okay (which it might be in some countries, I honestly don't know) down our throats.

As far as the characters go, this is basically the anime version of Twilight (minus the werewolves). Heck, this whole series is basically like this:

Yuki: Bella
Zero: Jacob (minus the werewolf bit)
Kaname: Edward

The only differences are that Yuki is a bigger dimwit than Bella (didn't think that was possible), Kaname is just a big abuser, and Zero isn't a werewolf.

What makes the series interesting is the different "levels" of vampires and the Vampire Hunters that are in the series. But that's all taken away from (and I'm going to spoil it here), the Team Kaname/Team Zero thing. Yuki chooses Team Kaname, decides to become a vampire, and we learn that not only is she a pureblood vampire, but she's Kaname's younger sister.

The music is probably the best part of the entire series. The openings for both seasons are sung by ON/OFF, and the endings for both seasons are sung by cellist and singer Kanon Wakeshima. The music videos for the songs are actually pretty cool to watch, too. I'd definitely check them out. The opening for Vampire Knight is "Two Beats and a Red Sin" (ふたつの鼓動と赤い罪), and the opening for Vampire Knight: Guilty is "Rinnie -Rondo-" (輪廻－ロンド－). The ending for Vampire Knight is "Still Doll," and the ending for Vampire Knight: Guilty is "Sand Castle" (砂のお城).

Well, that's my review of Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight: Guilty. I hope you enjoyed it, and look forward to Anime Monday #23, which will be...I have no idea. I'm considering Akatsuki no Yona, among a couple others, but we shall see.

ALSO: I'm moving into my dorm in a couple of weeks, and that entails a lot of packing. So, naturally, I might have to go on a short hiatus. Sorry!!!